I remember my cousin had an N64 and but never had a memory pak which is required for this game. We loved Mystical Ninja on SNES and he told me he rented it and beat it in a day. Never turned off the game. I borrowed it from him and did the same thing. Summoning Impact for the first time was one of the best gaming moments ever.

For me, the game I appreciate the most is Mega Man X (trust me there are tons of runner ups).

What I loved about Mega Man X is how it nailed next gen gaming. When Super Nintendo, most games got the "Super" upgrade; an experience that just couldn't be achieved on the normal NES. This includes Double Dragons, Castlevania, Super Mario, Contra, etc. Mega Man X did everything Mega Man did, but bigger, faster, and with more style. His jump animation is slick! I still remember discovering the wall kick for the first time and being blown away. The controls are tight. Dashing and gunning never felt so good.

I would argue Grandia has the best battle system of any RPG ever
The soundtracks by Noriyuki Iwadare are some of the finest compositions ever

but more than just being incredibly well crafted videogames there are so many ideas and feelings in these stories and worlds that have inspired me and stuck with me.

The spirit of adventure, of wanting to go explore a world and find strange otherworldly places no-one else has been to.
Following your dreams and your passions even if society is moving away from them.
Spending so much time in and around a starting area that you really feel sadness at "leaving home"
The difference between maturity and mere cynicism
Believing in yourself even when you're crushed to find out people close to you dont.

and of course, more importantly. Poking all the items and furniture in peoples houses to see what they do

XCOM Ufo Defense
I played this game for hundreds of hours. Mostly with my neighbor, each of us having their own save slot, hot-seating through the thing. Reloading was not allowed, everyone was to play for 30 minutes, then the other one picked up mouse and keyboard and loaded his save file.
When playing, there was always this dread of losing your best men or a mission. When not playing, there was always this hope that something really spectacular would happen. Like that one alien grenade wiping out a handful of soldiers.
This is an absolute masterpiece.

Worms Armageddon
In 1999 to 2000 I played about three hours of hotseat each day. Don't think there was a person on this world that had more hours on this thing in 1999/2000. Played mostly bazooka & grenades with 10 seconds of move time, no ropes. The matches we had were epic.

Jagged Alliance 2
Similar to xcom: me and a friend, each his own saveslot, alternating for hours on end. We played this in 2002, some years after the game came out.
The hardest difficulty option, reloading was not allowed. Each decision mattered. Still remember Raven bleeding out in the central city, Cambria. She was shot in the sector where the mine is located. One of the best tactical games of all time.

Persona 4 Golden
Played this on my Vita last year. Is there any explanation needed? 80 hours for the true ending, played on easy difficulty. Introduced me to other Shin Megami Tensei games.

The custom games are still industry-leading for innovation to this day. Mobile games, flash games, and even plenty of Sub-$30 games are still trying to compare to the quality of some of those custom games.

It also really solidified my passion for PC Gaming. The customization spoke to me.

Braid ps3/xbox360/pc/mac
Because it was the first time I felt that I was playing more than a game. There's themes of love lost and looking back at relationships and romanticizing them, but it's all very poetic and subtle. I played this game while I was in a similar situation so it hit home. The end "level" is pure genius and hit me in the balls like no other moment in a video game ever did. Besides that, the puzzle platforming was also pretty damn hard at times but I never looked at a walkthrough, so there's the pride in that also. Anyway, great game, it gets lumped together with Limbo a lot of times as the 1st batch of popular "indie" games, but Limbo, while good, isn't even in the same league as far as I'm concerned.

Probably Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. It was my first JRPG, had plenty of humor I still find funny to this day, and being a 7 year old with the ability to play as Bowser was bad ass lol.

Another 2 options I might say are Majora's Mask, and Dragon Quest 7. Both for the superb context and atmosphere. 7 may have used the same 10 character models, but damn could it build a world... literally lol

Became an incredibly personal game for me, with a story which continues to fascinate and ignite me, dancing back and forth with very real world stuff which became a huge part of the experience.

Beyond that, the fascinating development process - spotlighting the sheer genius of Yui Tanimura. A man who not only came onboard to rescue a broken game and get it shipped on time, but as solo director created some of Souls very finest levels as the Three Crowns Trilogy DLC. Still refusing to let the game go Tanimura continued with Scholar, remixing enemy placements, story, continuity, as well as introducing the character of the Scholar himself.

I continue to be utterly smitten with it.

But never forgetting the magnificence of Demon's Souls.

Still a terrifying enigma, with stunning design work and a world which pushes needles into me whenever I play it.

I've been here since importing the US Special Edition all those many moons ago, and I still can't quite get the measure of Miyazaki's first Souls game.

Because it changed my perspective on life itself through the Paragon/Renegade system: I chose to be more Paragon in real life because of this trilogy. I had never cared more for video game characters than I did in this game, and I wanted them to be well. So I played Paragon, and then I felt that in real life I was being too much of an asshole (read: Renegade) at that time. So I chose to change that. It made me a better person, and that's not something any other game achieved for me.

The game I completed the most often is by far Super Mario 64 (still do a 120 playthrough every year), but I wouldn't necessarily call it my "favourite game". I suppose I'll answer Mount and Blade: Warband, but reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

My Favorite game is Halo. That is the game that brought back to console gaming. The music and the open vistas on the Halo ring at the time were beautiful. The epic 4 vs 4 battles under one roof . I can almost remember the screams.

I'm going with The Witcher series, if I'm nitpicking on which in particular, it would of course be the The Wild Hunt. I read the books, and played the games, so I gained an affinity for the lore of that world, and the characters that are in it. The Witcher 3, to me, felt alive. I love the little notes you could find on enemies or in camps that, while weren't always necessary to read, added to the "life" the game had. The weather, way you could customize your appearance with armor and hairstyles, the choices you make that influence change in the story. I also love all the nods to the books and the first two games you find.

Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn.
Fast paced beat em up with light RPG mechanics, a nonlinear story with branching paths and multiple endings, combat more akin to a fighting game, and a sweet anime art style.

Sometimes this switches place with Super Mario RPG and the first Dead Space, bur mostly its Guardian Heroes.

Final Fantasy 6 is my old standby "number 1 game", and I think the characters are really why it has stuck with me so strongly. The character development and stories feel surprisingly mature, yet without as much heavy visual presentation and the dialogue excess of more modern games . They express all the emotion through a variety of animations done with very small sprites. It's incredibly endearing at times.

The game itself is also totally broken in both good and bad ways, but I've gotten so used to it. The battle system is a very big net positive for me, even though I'm not sure why it works for me.

Its hard to pick just one, but i think Zelda BOTW became it. Its the closest thing to the game i always dreamed of and it`s really close to that "project ego" Peter Molyneux was talking about years ago.

It`s baffling how many systems are built and interact upon each other.
In 90% of games when i see a tree, i just see it as a visual element.
In Botw i see:

Something i can climb to have a better view of the surroundings

A source of food with fruits

A source of wood to burn for fire (and fire can be used in many ways in this game)

If cut and thrown into a river, a tree could be a fortune boat.
etc. etc. etc.

No games that i can think of allows me this much and with this level of polish.

My heart wants to say Ocarina of Time. I rented it from Blockbuster 3 times before my parents caved in and purchased it. I couldn't believe that games could be like that. I was blown away by a wide open world with multiple towns, genuinely challenging puzzles, many secrets, time travel and a story I cared about.

However, my brain wants to say Command and Conquer, I probably wouldn't be a software engineer if it wasn't for C&C. It was the first game I modded. It got me into PC's and figuring out how to make things on PCs bend to my will. Now, when I watch Mr Robot, I'm like, 'oh I know how to do that'.